COURTAULDS.
Mr. Samuel Courtauld's address to the shareholders of ourtaulds last Tuesday was a model of restrained optimism. a a shareholder who complained that there was no Justifica- ion for the_recent reduction in the dividend, Mr. Courtauld e the effective reply that although 'earnings had been need by 25 per cent., the reduction in the dividend was rely from 25 to 221 per cent. The Chairman of the Company Ilea very carefully and impartially reviewed the pros and ns with regard to the outlook in the artificial silk industry, on the one hand, upon the steady increase in business, on the other hand, upon the attention which had to be ven to possible changes of fashion. On the whole, however, nlaY be said that Mr. Courtauld took a hopeful view with rd to the future, observing that "he did not think it was much to hope that the downward curve to 1925 was now 11E arrested.' The Chairman also remarked that he 'ght some of the present confidence in the stability of • Itificial prices might be traced to a knowledge of the 'It agreement with the Snia Company. Perhaps, however, the most noteworthy fact in the situation, so far as the past year's operations of Courtaulds are concerned, is that the company should have been able to pay as fine a dividend as 221 per cent. in the face of the general industrial depression.
A. W. K.
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